Household water bills could rise by £40 a year to pay for new EU rules
ordering water firms to filter out chemicals that have a “negligible” threat
to the environment, an MEP has warned.

The European Commission is planning to force water firms to remove traces of pharmaceuticals found in some commonly-used pills from the rivers and lakes that their waste water ends up in.

The Commission is pushing through the changes to improve the “environmental quality standards” of “rivers, lakes and coastal waters”.

However Julie Girling, Conservative MEP for the South West and a member of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, said that banning the substances will do little to improve the environment and could end up costing water companies £20 billion over the next 20 years to implement.

If the costs of £1 billion a year are passed on to householders, they could face a rise in annual bills of £40. Average household bills for water and sewerage services already stand at around £380 and have been rising at above-inflation levels in many parts of the UK.

The three chemicals that Ms Girling is concerned about are estradiol, ethinylestradiol and diclofenac.

Estradiol is a naturally-occurring oestrogen and is unavoidably excreted by humans and animals. Ethinylestradiol is an oestrogen used in birth-control pills while diclofenac is an anti-inflammatory commonly used to treat arthritis. All three substances can find their way into water-courses in very small quantities through treated waste water, said Ms Girling.

She said: “There is nothing to suggest we are talking about anything other than a negligible level of environmental risk here. The Commission has not properly set out what benefits would be gained by putting these substances on the priority list at such enormous cost.

“We need robust evidence to show whether this is appropriate, but that has not been produced.”

She said that adding the pharmaceuticals to the Priority Substances list may sound environmentally beneficial, the “implementation costs have simply not been considered” by the Commission.

“Until that has been done, and until more rigorous scientific evidence is produced to support such a move, this measure is completely disproportionate,” she said.

A spokesman for Ofwat, the water regulator, said that it is keeping an eye on the situation and is mindful of the impact that the change in regulations could have on household bills.

“We are fully aware of this issue and, given the potential impacts on water bills, are following developments closely,” the spokesman said.